Revolving Door Newsletter: 05.15.07

Reuters-Thomson Merger Dwarfs Burkle's Billion Dollar Gamble

May 15, 2007
The staffs of Motor Trend, Automobile, Soap Opera Digest, and the 160 or so other media properties within the Primedia Enthusiast Media Group, have to be wondering whether they've just lurched from the frying pan into the fire, now that Primedia's controlling shareholder, the private equity giant KKR, has flipped the group to the Ron Burkle-controlled Source Interlink. The price -- $1.18 billion, in cash -- is nearly double Primedia's market cap as of yesterday, and analysts slammed the deal as lacking any realistic synergies, leading one to wonder whether Source will make this acquisition pay off the old fashion ...

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